Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Vosges Bacon Chocolate

It's been a few years now since it went from an acceptable religion to passe. It was just ten short years ago when my office crew chipped in and got me Bacon of the Month Club for my birthday, but it feels like yesterday. Hop Sing was ordering me bacon-tinis more like twelve years ago.

Fashionable or not, the taste hasn't changed, so when my BFF asked which Vosges chocolate I wanted her to bring back from Chicago, bacon was still the obvious choice.

I'm eating it now (was there any doubt?) and it's a salty-savory-sweet combo that's a lot like fleur de sel ice cream (which I love, and I don't even care about ice cream) -- applewood smoked bacon + Alder wood smoked salt + chocolate.

My only criticism -- if you could call it that -- is that when you open it up, it smells just like beef jerky.

I haven't tasted much of the bacon bandwagon as it's been applied to the candy market, but dialing back on the "smoked" component might take care of that.

I have now segued into the Naga Bar (haute chocolat): sweet Indian curry powder, coconut flakes, deep milk chocolate. I consider coconut a major food group, so this works well for me. Just enough heat without being overbearing -- almost like a slightly Asian/Indian influenced mole.